The DJI Mavic Air is one of many DJI UAV products. The Mavic Air is best known for its portability and serves the high-end hobbyist and serious enthusiast range of users. DJI has implemented some very unique design ideas to make the drone portable.
The Mavic Air folds up for storage, is very well built and looks aesthetic. The Mavic Air weighs just under 1 lb. and is very easy to carry around. The Mavic Air shoots 4K videos at 30 fps and still picture capture is performed at 12 megapixels. This works very well for its intended audience. The Mavic Air has a battery endurance range that results in flight times between 18-21 minutes. Strong winds alter battery endurance ranges. In terms of line of sight range the Mavic Air has a 2.5-mile control range using the remote. The drone comes equipped with internal and supplemental storage, the Mavic Air has 8GB of internal memory. The USB-C port allows for transfer of files. The supplemental microSD slot has support for microSDHC and microSDXC media. For power charging, the remote requires Micro USB and the drone has a USB Type-C port to transfer footage.
The Mavic Air is equipped with GPS and GLONASS satellite positioning. The GPS sensors are accurate and reliably enable automated and semi-automated flight modes. The Mavic Air performs well in steady hovering. Its GPS sensors make the ‘return-to-home’ safety feature very reliable. Location detection enforces no-fly zones and is once again very reliable. For example, the system will alert you to get authorization before flying at an airshow location with a TFR around it. There are a number of warning levels. Some warning levels can be overridden with necessary authorization and there are others that can’t be overridden.
The drone supports QuickShots. These automated camera shots move the drone through the air in a predetermined pattern such as a helix or spherical shot and allow for quick capture of the surrounding. This improves productivity and reduces the amount of manual programming needed to get the footage. Even with forward and rear obstacle detection, QuickShots must be used with care. In the QuickShot modes, the drone flies itself, and there is always a risk of collision.
The Mavic Air will fly at 17.9 miles per hour with obstacle avoidance enabled, or at up to 42.5 miles per hour in Sport mode, a mode in which the obstacle detection system is disabled. With a climb rate of 13 feet per second in Sports mode and 5 feet per second in Positioning mode (both using the Remote Controller), the Mavic Air is found be very useful in most situations.
The maximum service ceiling for the Mavic Air is 3.1 miles above sea level. One of the important considerations with regard to UAVs or drones is their wind resistance capability. The DJI Mavic Air wind limit is 22 miles per hour. Beyond this number, the Mavic Air will generate a warning for high winds. This can be somewhat limiting in certain circumstances. The Mavic Air’s obstacle detection and avoidance system is very much reliable. The Air has forward, backward and downward sensors. The Advanced Pilot Awareness System (APAS) leverages all of these sensors. Coupled with this intelligence, instead of simply hovering in place when it detects an obstacle blocking the drone’s path, the Mavic Air explores the situation and automatically adjusts flight to avoid it, either by flying to the side or rising above it.
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